Love Angels
by Kanna-Ophelia
Summary: Scarlet tries to deal with being a human girl, and with her growing feelings for her friends - one, in particular. Sugar-coated festive season romance. * Femmeslash/ yuri* (Scarlet/Momoko) *complete*
1. Christmas Eve

The tragic result of watching the Legendary Love Angel Wedding Peach Deluxe Christmas Special ("Reunion: We even fight on Christmas Day

The tragic result of watching the _Legendary Love Angel Wedding Peach Deluxe Christmas Special_ ("Reunion: We even fight on Christmas Day!") while feeling sentimental… This has gone through a couple of title changes and mild revisions. :)

Warnings: This is a femmeslash, aka yuri, love story. If you are bothered by the idea of two girls together, with some heterosexual and male/male hints, you've only got your own lesbophobia to blame if you read on and are offended. 

Paranatural Cast

Momoko= Angel Peach Scarlet=Angel Salvia  
Yuri= Angel Lily Hinagiku=Angel Daisy  


Yanagibi= Archangel Limone Sakura = Archangel Celeste

Yousuke= Devil Viento

****

Dedications: To Charabok, for pushing me to write a _Wedding Peach_ story, and sending me that inspirational picture of Momoko and Scarlet. And this is especially dedicated to my darling Hecate, who knows _exactly_ why. ::beso::

****

Love Angel

Scarlet woke, sobbing, as she did most nights. Night terrors were one of the drawbacks of living as a human that she hadn't fully considered. She had suffered as an Angel, but it was only as a human she was plagued by dreams.

She glanced quickly around the dormitory to ensure she had wakened no one, then curled up into a ball and brooded. She could never reconstruct her dreams on waking, could never access more than disjointed, grief and terror blurred images. Freesia's death and her own inability to prevent it, demons she had purified coming back to haunt her after their destruction, her own fiancé becoming a demon before her eyes, and her swords cutting through him. 

As always, under stress, Scarlet reverted to detachment, turning her own pain and phantasms under analysis. Nightmares were, she knew, a human psychophysical mechanism, repeating the unbearable in the safety of unconsciousness until it could be borne by the waking mind. Pity she hadn't considered that aspect of humanity when Aphrodite offered her the choice.

Only lately… Lately she had woken to Peach's voice, calling her back from the darkness. Scarlet mouthed the words in the darkness. _Salvia, hold on. We love you, we need you, don't leave…_

Scarlet shook her sweat-dampened hair back from her face and climbed out of bed. Brooding wasn't achieving anything. She moved into the bathroom to bathe her face, scrutinising her pale reflection in the mirror. Her violet eyes were very dark, lack of sleep lining them with black. She had better make up carefully that morning or her friends would demand to know what was wrong. Especially Momoko, who could be relied on never to mind her own business.

As she dried her face on the towel, she wondered why Peach – no, Momoko, Scarlet corrected herself – had entered her dreams. Until lately, she had relived her horrors over and over without hearing anyone's voice but her own.

"Lady Aphrodite?" she asked, softly. "Are you sending the dreams, my goddess?" But only silence answered her.

Oh, Salvia, don't cry. I'm here, I'll never leave you, Peach had implored.

Scarlet wondered why the memory of the words had warmed her frozen heart so. She was almost in danger of thawing. 

When she returned to her bed, the images that floated through her head were not of her dead lover and enemies, but of Momoko. Spun candy hair fanning around a heart-shaped face, the cerulean eyes sparkling with spirit and mischief. The beauty and strength of an angel, and another attribute that was both alien and beautiful to the Angel Salvia, some sweet combination of compassion and playfulness that was purely human.

Momoko-Peach, Peach-Momoko. Scarlet repeated her name over to herself, and smiled as sleep washed over her. She did not dream again that night,

* * *

Under the harsh, unromantic light of waking day, Momoko was more than just beautiful and kind. She was loud, interfering and irritating. Yuri and Scarlet bobbed along in her wake, sharing a silent relief that Momoko's annoying attentions were trained on Hinagiku for the moment. They kicked through the slush, Scarlet wishing she dared transform and fly home from school.

"You're giving Takorou a computer programme about _mathematics _for Christmas?"

Hinagiku glared defiantly at her. "What's wrong with that?"

Momoko pouted. "It's so unromantic. He'll think you don't _like _like him."

The other girl rolled her eyes. "Bingo."

"Why don't you just hand in your wings, Hinako? What kind of a Love Angel are you?"

"A gay one," Scarlet could have sworn she heard Hinagiku mutter under her breath. 

The redhead smothered an unfittingly adolescent giggle. Momoko was, in Scarlet's opinion, a genius at ignoring the breathtakingly obvious. Hinagiku might be fond of Takorou, but if any girl was ever headed for a wardrobe of silk shirts and work boots, it was the lime-haired tomboy.

"What's so funny, Scarlet?"

Scarlet turned to face wide, questioning eyes. She opened her mouth to share her opinion of Momoko's blindness, then realised who she was talking to, and paused. She was torn between honesty and giving the younger girl her patented 'I'm a true angel and you're not, so you will never understand' smile.

It was, of course, true that Yuri was Yanagabi's true love, and was probably going to breed little angelettes with him for all eternity. Yuri had grown up among wedding dresses and in an atmosphere of overly romantic femininity and cloying heterosexuality. Her future was, in a way, as crystalline as that of Hinagiku. It didn't mean much, in the end, that Yuri was the Fighter Angel Lily and her boyfriend, known to himself or not, was the angel Limone. You only had to spend a few minutes at Momoko's house to realise that the Angel Celeste, after all, had become a very happy housewife.

But it was also true that Yuri was a very pretty young woman, and that she spent most of her waking moments with Hinagiku. Yuri was so very, exaggeratedly feminine too – enough to suggest "femme" rather than "feminine." She drew her magical powers from a holy lip-liner, for Aphrodite's sake… 

Not for the first time, Scarlet regretted not being able to sense human relationships better. For a Love Angel, she knew she could be very blind. She knew Hinagiku was in love with Yuri, but as to whether the jade-eyed girl returned her feelings… Scarlet looked into Yuri's sweet face, and discovered that she had absolutely no idea if the younger girl was Hinagiku's lover or merely her best friend.

Hinagiku's lover… Scarlet had a sudden image of the girls entwined together, Yuri's delicate curves trapped under Hinagiku's lithe strength, breasts pressed together as mouths sought each other… She was surprised by way the pit of her stomach clenched at the thought. Something she had not felt since Freesia's death.

No, that wasn't right, she had felt this since - 

Scarlet realised she was staring blankly at Yuri, and closed her mouth. The younger girl looked concerned. 

"Scarlet? Are you all right?"

Scarlet watched the sweet curve of Yuri's mouth as she talked, and wondered what it would be like to kiss her. She felt a sudden pounding of regret as she realised she had never tasted Freesia's mouth, and now it was too late. And she was staring at Yuri, who she looked at as a little sister, as if she was going to jump her in the street. What was wrong with her? Something connected with the dreams, she was sure, but…

The quarrelling between Hinagiku and Momoko continued to pound in Scarlet's ears, but not 

more loudly than her heart. Barely able to control herself, she began to move forwards towards Yuri. The younger girl lifted questioning eyes.

The mood was broken by a squeal up ahead. The Fighter Angel's brave and caring leader had just attempted to brain one of her lieutenants with her satchel, and had overbalanced and fallen into a puddle of melting snow. Hinagiku was heartlessly screeching with laughter.

"You bitch!" Momoko screamed. "At least help me up!"

Still convulsed by giggles, Hinagiku unwisely extended a hand, allowing her leader to pull her down into the freezing filth. She gasped with rage and grabbed at Momoko's long pink hair. Yuri, ever the peacemaker, cried out in horror and went to separate them. Scarlet hovered and watched them, trying to calm her breathing.

When Yuri had managed to detach her friends, Scarlet stepped forward and ordered the girls home. "You'll die of pneumonia," she snapped.

"Yes, Mama," Hinagiku said, and the girls giggled.

The group finally broke up. Scarlet was conscious of a certain amount of relief. She loved her younger friends, but they could be exhausting sometimes, and she needed space to ponder her own new impulses. She watched as Yuri and Hinagiku wandered off arm-in-arm, despite the fact that the tomboy was soaking wet and filthy, and Yuri normally was as fastidious as her princess-like demeanor would suggest. 

Momoko lingered behind, watching the two girls almost as thoughtfully as Scarlet was.

"Scarlet? Can I talk to you for a moment?"

She sighed to herself, but her response was as elegant and emotionless as usual. "Of course."

Momoko seemed ill at ease for some reason, her cheeks almost as soft a p[ink as her hair. Of course, that was probably the freezing wind. "Scarlet, we're all - Hinagiku and Yuri and the boys and I - going shopping for Christmas Eve. Would you like to come?"

Scarlet gave her most remote, unencouraging smile. "I wouldn't like to play gooseberry."

"You _could _bring a date, you know. If even Hinagiku can…" Momoko sighed and shook her pink head, as if realising what she was saying was stupid. "Well, afterwards then, Scarlet-would-you-come-home-with-me-for-Christmas-please?" she rushed. She clasped her hands imploringly, as if the answer was really important to her.

Scarlet lifted an eyebrow "Why?" she asked bluntly.

"Scarlet, no one should have to spend Christmas alone." Momoko laid a hand on the redhead's arm. It felt strangely warm and heavy there.

"Human celebrations and sentiment mean nothing to me – Peach." Scarlet said reprovingly, and 

began to remove Momoko's hand from her arm.

Momoko pouted crossly at her. "You chose to try and live as an ordinary human, didn't you?"

"Yes." Scarlet bit her lip. "I'm just not sure I'm very good at it," she admitted softly.

Momoko's grip tightened. "Then come because I'd like you to. Christmas should be spent with the ones you love. Mama'd like to have you. You can't refuse a request from the Angel Celeste, right? And I want you, too."

Those beautiful cerulean eyes were fixed on her. _Salvia, we need you, we love you, _echoed unbidden in the angel's mind.

"No one should spend Christmas alone," she said softly, and was rewarded by Momoko's face blossoming into one of her radiant smiles.

The older girl pulled away abruptly and headed back for her apartment. She needed to be alone. Somewhere in Momoko's glowing expression she had found a name for the emotion pulling at the pit of her stomach.

Longing.

  * * * *

Late Christmas Eve night, Scarlet wasn't so sure she'd made the right decision. Returning from battling Golden Mask, exhausted from yet another round of demon-purification and the relentless teen romantic intrigues of her fellow Angels, there was still Momoko's family to be faced. Scarlet was beginning to long for the quiet of her dorm room.

"I must leave you to go to the kitchen, my love," Sakura whispered in dulcet tones.

Her husband gazed adoringly at her. "Take care, my angel, and be back soon." Momoko's parents embraced.

Across the table, Momoko rolled her eyes at Scarlet, who couldn't help grinning back. "Take care? Of the evil monster that lives under the sink?" She shook her head. "Are they always like this?"

"Always. When Mama says she stayed on Earth for love, she wasn't kidding." Momoko leaned across the table and whispered, "Just try to steer them clear from the mistletoe, okay?"

Scarlet turned to watch Sakura float out of the room, her face dreamy. It was almost beyond comprehension that this infatuated housewife was the legendary angel Celeste… Scarlet felt a twinge of envy at the senior angel's happiness, and was surprised at herself. Her last ambition was to be a permanent dishwasher and cook.

"How do we keep them from the mistletoe?" she whispered back.

Momoko smiled, very innocently, at her. "We could camp under it ourselves."

Scarlet caught her breath, and then realised Momoko was just joking. Hot blood flooded her face. 

"Momoko, Scarlet, dear, look what we have. Traditional English Christmas pudding!" Sakura announced, reentering the room.

"My darling, what a genius you are…"

Scarlet dropped her suddenly dancing eyes to focus on the food, trying to ignore the odd way Momoko was looking at her.


	2. Just another angelic family Christmas

Dedicated, as always, to my own beloved **__**

Dedicated, as always, to my own beloved.

"I always _knew _Hinagiku like-likes Takorou!" Momoko chattered happily, as the girls climbed the stairs together. She seemed, Scarlet thought with growing irritation, ludicrously triumphant over it. Momoko had already spent half the night analysing every word or look that had passed between the childhood friends, and Scarlet wasn't sure how much more of her adolescent gushings she could take. Especially when every word cut through her like a knife. "She absolutely hated that demon-girl hitting on him, Scarlet, I wish you'd seen!"

Scarlet tossed back her red hair and snapped, "Maybe she was just sick of being the odd one out. That's usually my job, isn't it?"

Momoko paused with her hand on the door to her bedroom, shocked out of her train of thought for once in her chatterbox life. "Oh, Scarlet, I'm so sorry. I didn't think you cared, I mean, you could have any boy you like, you know that, and you never bring a date…" Rosy lips trembled penitently, and Scarlet was afraid Momoko was going to hug her. And she couldn't bear the other girl's arms around her, not right now… Not now she was suddenly unable to trust herself around any of her friends and, most particularly, this one.

"I'm sorry," she sighed, warding Momoko's embrace off. "I don't know what's come over me…"

//No idea at all,// she echoed bitterly in the privacy of her own mind //I don't even recall dreaming of you every night, or being able to get the image of Yuri and Hinagiku together out of my mind. I certainly don't care at all that I kissed you under the mistletoe tonight and it meant, nothing, nothing at all. Because it's all a game, and I am your friend, and you're involved in the Romeo and Juliet romance of the century. And just to rub it in, you've spent the last ten minutes relentlessly heterosexualising the only fucking lesbian you know. Damnit, I really did drink too much champagne tonight…//

Scarlet was half-blinded by futile, girlish, half-drunk tears as she followed Momoko into her room. She felt sick to her stomach, and wanted nothing more than to curl up on her stretcher bed, close her eyes, block out her thoughts - and shut Momoko's bloody chatter off for a moment, she realised, as the younger girl, reassured, started off again on her Hinagiku-Takorou fantasies again, sharing them with Jamapi this time.

She managed to block out the words as she sat on the bed, but that didn't help, because now she was watching Momoko's lips move, and remembering how silken they had felt against hers.

/ ** / ** / ** / **/

The rest of the evening with her friend's family had been both more difficult and easier to endure than Scarlet had feared. It was entrancingly effortless, after all, to watch Momoko, her vivid face lit up with pleasure at Christmas and her family, to try to analyse her appeal. It was more than just beauty. All angels were flawless, by definition. And it was more than just charm of expression. Yuri's manner was enough to cause serious tooth decay, after all, and despite that brief moment of weakness on the road earlier that day, Scarlet never dreamed of Yuri. There was strength and animation in Momoko's face, tempering both the perfect features and the gentle face, somehow escaping both cold purity and insipidity. Scarlet had stared at firelight reflected in clear blue eyes, and tried to find the word.

Pretty. Momoko was pretty. Such an incongruously human word for the legendary Angel Wedding Peach. But then, Momoko was so incongruously human. And 'pretty' suited her, somehow evoked exactly the sweet ache her face caused in Scarlet's… She bit the thought off. //_Watch yourself, Salvia. Love may be angelic, but romance and passion are human inventions. For weak humans. Not Fighter Angels//_

Of course there was Sakura, wrapped around and in her human husband.

No, the difficulty did not lie in Momoko's presence or her laughter, which was becoming more addictive and necessary by the moment. It lay in trying to control her own reactions. Especially when her innocent – and _heterosexual,_ Scarlet, try to remember that - friend took her hand and pulled her, giggling, under the mistletoe. At least, Momoko was giggling. Scarlet was trying very hard not to run away.

She could feel burning blood flood her cheeks, creep down to spread hot blood across her breasts. Momoko's parents were watching her, smiling indulgently. And it wasn't as if Scarlet didn't know the human script off by heart. A teasing smile, a gentle peck on the lips… Yousuke could do it. Yousuke would make some joke about ugly girls needing to use mistletoe, and kiss her, not too much, not too little, just a casual, fond kiss. Yousuke was Momoko's boyfriend, her true love…

Yousuke was the devil Viento, and had absolutely no right to kiss an angel. Scarlet, as Salvia, was Peach's equal – her better – and had every right in the world. And she could no more call Peach 'Momopi' and tease and kiss her than she could fly. Perhaps not such a wonderful thing, being a Love Angel, after all. Maybe that was what Hinagiku felt when she looked at Yuri…

Momoko was twinkling at her, no angelic detachment in her at all. "Am I so very dreadful you can't bear to touch me, Scarlet? One kiss!" And her father had shouted approval, and Scarlet had looked at her closest friend's smile and realised, quite simply, that the confusion of the last few days had all been a matter of recognising that she was in love. Madly, passionately, agonisingly in love. And now she was going to have a chance to kiss her beloved. Lucky, lucky girl…

She had bent her head, and left a soft, chaste kiss on Momoko's waiting mouth, and lifted her head to see, through burning eyes, Momoko still merry-eyed, and her parents beaming laughing approval on the. So cute and innocent, two little girls kissing under the mistletoe. Good for a laugh and a misty eye or two.

Scarlet had done exactly what was expected, and done it beautifully, as always. Nothing to reproach herself with. She hadn't, for example, devoured Momoko's sweet lips, plied them with adoring kisses, pulled her close enough to feel the soft warmth of her breasts against her own, parted Momoko's mouth with her tongue and taken the warm depths, kissed her breathless and made love to her on the lounge room floor… Merely pressed their mouths briefly together, smiled unconcernedly, and stepped away. Ice princess demeanor intact.

If Scarlet's lips burned and ached now, it surely wasn't her fault. She had done the right thing. As always.

/ ** / ** / ** / ** /

She dropped her head on the pillows so that she would not have to watch Momoko, still rattling on, unconcernedly strip in front of her. Or, come to that, she feared being too obviously not looking. After all, girls often undressed in front of each other. It was perfectly acceptable, because everyone knew girls could have no sexual interest in each other whatsoever. Anyway, the Angels all saw each other naked during the transformations.

Well, not even Momoko usually changed her clothes in front of Hinagiku. But that was a little different.

//Face it, Scarlet, you're different too. A lesbian angel in human form in love with a heterosexual bimbo half-angel. Different is hardly the word…///

Scarlet rolled over and heaved a sigh.

"Are you okay?" Momoko, mercifully still with her virginal cotton bra and panties intact, sat beside her. Oh, goddess, she was stroking the hair back from Scarlet's forehead… Her hand was as soft as Scarlet had imagined, with tiny roughnesses on the pads of her fingertips from all the hours spent typing for her school newspaper. The older girl felt hot blood rise in her face.

"Lady Salvia is tired, pii?" Jamapi half-suggested half-asked in its piping voice, bobbing around the ceiling like an obese cupid.

Momoko's eyes were filling with sentimental tears of her own. Scarlet realised she wasn't the only one in the room slightly drunk.

"Of course she's worn out!" the pink-haired girl cried repentantly. "No wonder, after today. I'm such an inconsiderate bitch… I never thanked you properly for saving us all today… You really pulled our arses out of the fire, Angel Salvia. As usual. I don't know what we did before we found you." She stooped and kissed Scarlet's blush-heated forehead.

Scarlet closed her eyes against the almost overwhelming desire to reach up, grab her friend and pull her down against her to be kissed properly. Holy Aphrodite, why did Momoko have to be so sweet at such bad moments?

She sought for something to say, anything but the "I love you" which was rising to her lips without her accord. 

"Momoko, why do you want so much for Hinagiku to fall in love with Takourou? Can't you tell she likes Yuri?" 

There was a silence, then a worried, "What's wrong, Lady Peach pii?"

Scarlet opened her eyes to see Momoko blushing as furiously as she was. There was palpable distress in those huge eyes. The older girl sat up in concern.

"Momoko, what's wrong, dear?" The endearment slipped out without her knowledge. She just wanted so desperately to cancel out that pain… But there was a sudden paranoid fear in her heart, too. Momoko wasn't in love with Yuri herself, surely not…

"Nothing's wrong." She tossed her head, and candy-coloured locks floated into the air before settling again, feather-light, on bare shoulders. Scarlet spared some of her attention to melt. "I'm a Love Angel, isn't it natural to want my friends to find love?" She wouldn't meet Scarlet's gaze.

TBC


	3. Snow Angels

"Scarlet?"

"Mm?" Scarlet stared at the hand clasped in hers, at the loosely linked fingers. She could feel the slight warmth of the contact burning her soul.

"Do you ever feel that something dreadful is going to happen, you can feel the pain waiting to fall, and you're fighting against disaster, with all that you are… but there's really nothing you can do? Like trying to hold back an avalanche…"

Momoko lifted her ridiculously tragic face to Scarlet, so pretty and vulnerable, and the angel fell, finally, to temptation.

It was one of those moments after which a lifetime of rationality couldn't undo the results of a split second of surrender to emotion.  Scarlet tipped a finger under Momoko's tear streaked face and tilted her mouth up to her own.

There was no pretext this time, no mistletoe to excuse the silken touch of lips on lips, only a need to comfort mixed with longing until Scarlet could no longer differentiate between the emotions. She let her free arm slide around the other girl's back and draw her closer. When Momoko didn't pull away, just remained warm and yielding in her arms, Scarlet sighed against her mouth and gave in control altogether, letting her lips part and her tongue caress the sweet mouth beneath hers.

"Sca – Scarlet!"  Momoko pushed suddenly, hard against her, and the girl half-fell across the bed. She looked dazedly up at the younger girl, whose face was flaming, blue eyes wide with shock. "What are you doing?"

"I'm sorry!" Scarlet flung herself from the bed and leapt out the window, her wings spreading automatically without need for full transformation, driven by distress and the overpowering need to escape.

The night air cut like a freezing-hot blade through her thin nightdress as she plummeted through the darkness, lights from the houses she had passed sending brief flashes of illusory warmth.  For a moment it seemed as if she could out rush her pain, until it caught up with her and her flight grew ragged. She crashed behind a tree into a shadowed corner, sobbing tearlessly.

//Is this what it is to be human?// she wondered helplessly. //Do they feel like this often? How do they survive…//  She shook against the tree, uncertain as to whether it was from cold or pain, as her wings folded into themselves and disappeared. She speculated dully whether she was human enough now to actually freeze to death, but it didn't seem to matter.

Momoko hated her now.  She had finally found real friends, when Freesia's death had convinced her that side of life was closed to her now, and now… How could she face them all again? And worse… she realised that she had betrayed Momoko finally, taken advantage of her grief, and that hurt worse than her knowledge of her own destructiveness. 

A voice reached inside her grief, and with it, a familiar prickling feeling of abhorrent presence. Scarlet tensed, her instincts shrieking warning.

Devils… And close, so close.

Murderous fury washed over pain, drowning it. If Freesia had not been taken from her by devils, she would not be in this position… A tingle of guilt reminded her of the hard road she had fought by Momoko's side to transcend the ethic of vengeance, but in a strange way that only froze and hardened her hatred.  If Momoko's sweetness and light and human warmth were lost to her, what need had she to abide by the Angel Peach's rules of compassion?

She didn't even need to frame the transformation words before they burst from her lips.

**~Wedding Graceful Flower~**

Somewhere in her mind, she found the space to wish she had a more impressive transformation command.

For a moment she felt the satin wedding gown enfolding her, the accompanying golden rush of love and well-being, and then the final transformation took hold, bringing with it strength and unadulterated power. She was herself again, not a confused human girl, but the Angel Salvia, the weight of the twin swords comforting in her hands. Something to hold onto, a last resort that would never fail or betray her…  She screamed, less as a warning than as a battle cry, and launched into the air again.

For one dizzying second Salvia was aware of who she was attacking, and tried to halt her flight, and then a blow caught her from behind, sending her spinning into the snow.

"What - what is it?" Yousuke's voice asked, sounding confused. He stepped forward under the street lamp, trying futilely to see into the shadows.

"It's alright," Peach said calmly, reassurance spreading magically through her sweet voice. "Everything is under control. You should go home." Hidden by the darkness, she hauled Salvia to her feet, but her hand remained on her arm, not as an apology for knocking her flying but as a restraint.

The stupidity of humans, as always, shocked Salvia; Yousuke once again failed to realise the voice of the transformed girl who was supposed to be his true love. Even his demon heritage didn't save him.  The power in Peach's voice again did his task – he turned, dazed, and started home.

The angels stood silently together as the he left. For the first time in her life, Salvia found herself avoiding someone's gaze. She was sickeningly aware she had just made everything worse. She stared at her boots like a scolded schoolgirl, until a pair of wing-ankled little feet intruded into her vision.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" It was worse than Salvia had expected – Peach was literally trembling with rage, her gentle face transformed. "I don't understand what's wrong with you!" She drew a deep, steadying breath. "This is not like you at all."

Salvia averted her face. "What's not like me? Making an error?" Spite, which she regretted the moment after she spoke, made her add, "He is still of demon essence." //_And I wasn't exactly thinking straight,// she finished in silent apology._

Peach's hand snaked out, connecting hard with the other angel's cheek. "I meant you don't usually hit on me and then attack my boyfriend!"

It was a strange moment for Salvia to realise that not only could she never strike her companion, she could never even feel real anger against her.  From a distance, she heard her own voice asking, "Will Yousuke be alright?"

Peach's face crumpled, as the anger drained from it. With alarming swiftness, the fierce fighter angel was just a sad little girl again.  "He'll be fine… He's probably with Takourou by now." Much to Salvia's bewilderment, the rose-haired angel burst into helpless weeping again. 

"Peach, please don't cry." I can't believe we're back at this point again, Salvia berated herself, as she gathered her friend close. And I certainly shouldn't be doing this again… But Peach's tears were as irresistible as Momoko's had been, and Salvia simply didn't have the human social skills to comfort her with words. All she could do was give in to the instincts of the heart and body, and wrap her in her arms and affection.  Try, wordlessly, to love away her distress.

It seemed to work. Peach relaxed in her arms. Finally she said, in a small voice, "I always knew he had a crush on Yanagibi. It couldn't have been more obvious. But it didn't seem to matter, we all had crushes on Yanagibi, even Hinagiku… It was just a game." She sniffled pathetically against Salvia's shoulder plate.  "And then Yanagibi… Limone and Lily were just destined to be together. And I thought we were, too… We fought so hard to be allowed to love each other… He does love me really!" She was sobbing like a little girl now, and Salvia rocked her, aching with pity and love. "Just not that way…" There was a moment of incoherent sobbing, and then, finally, "And now he and Takourou…I guess they have a lot in common, being ex-devils and all, but oh, Salvia..."

Salvia soothed her as best she could, realising with stinging clarity why Peach had been so obsessive about Hinagiku and Takourou 'coming to terms with their feelings.' For the moment, her own helpless love didn't matter; all she wanted was to stop Peach hurting. She hugged her, stroked her back and fairyfloss hair, crooned wordlessly, and it seemed to help. The angel in her arms quietened her crying.

"Salvia?"

"Yes, dear?"

Peach lifted her face, red-eyed, swollen and flushed with crying and cold, and utterly exquisite.   "Why did you kiss me?"

"I'm sorry –"

"That's not an answer." Even if this state, Peach was capable of a glint which could remind Salvia who the leader of the love angels was.

"Because you were sad, and because I love you." The words sounded almost too calm on the freezing air. Perhaps a human would have said it more dramatically. But Salvia could only ever be what she was… time to accept it, perhaps.

"Oh." Unexpectedly, Peach hugged Salvia even tighter, burying her face in red hair. The icy air whirled around them, but it had less power to affect the angels than human girls, and the contact between them yielded far more warmth than the snow could drain from their bodies.

"Peach, why did you follow me?"

Peach raised her face again to look into Salvia's eyes, and blinked.  "I was worried about you… You were so upset, and it's the middle of winter. I wanted to make sure you were okay, and apologise.  I was so sorry I pushed you away." She caressed the side of Salvia's face. "Everything is so confusing… and I was taken by surprise."

"Oh." Salvia's response was flatter. She was aware of hugely conflicting emotions – pain still, and compassion for her friend, but underneath it all a warm happiness that the other angel-girl cared about her.

"I always just assumed that Yousuke and I were meant to be. It's taking a little time to understand what it means if I was wrong." She snuggled closer. "Scarlet?"

Salvia startled at her human name being used in her angelic form. "What is it, Peach – Momoko?"

"Kiss me again?" 

Their sighs mingled as their lips met, then their tongues, caressing gently.  It was the most intimately intense feeling Salvia had ever experienced, alarmingly sweet.  She had tears in her own eyes as their mouths parted.

"I love you," she said again, heartbreak in her voice.

Peach smiled through her own tears. "I always wanted you to be my best friend, like Yuri and Hinagiku. They're so close, I always felt left out. When you came, I knew, even though at first you were… difficult… I knew we'd love each other."

"I don't know if we mean the same thing by love." Salvia forced the words out.

Peach inclined her head very slightly, and caught Salvia's lower lip between her own, sucking gently. Salvia shivered as wet warmth convulsed within her. "Maybe I didn't," Peach whispered against her mouth. "But I do love you, I always did.  I was always so caught up in my Romeo and Juliet forbidden love affair. But if Yousuke and I are not meant to be… You know, Mama says that ther'es really no such thing as one-sided love. There's one-sided affection, lust, crushes, infatuation… But true love, angelic love, is never one sided. It's always mutual by definition – mutual, unquestioning, eternal.  Souls meeting and matching and melding." Salvia was awed, as she always was by the rare occasions when Momoko turned the sweet intensity she usually wasted on everyday things, on her up-and-down moods, to something serious and important.  "And Mama should know," Peach added, giggling a little, but her eyes were still very serious.

"Peach… Momoko…" Salvia sighed back.

"Do you truly love me, Scarlet?"  
There was no space for hesitation. "With all my heart and soul."

The kiss was different this time, changed. The pink-haired angels' mouth was open beneath her own, hungry and passionate. Salvia felt as if her soul was being pulled form her body through the kiss, and replaced by hot golden light.

"Then I belong to you," Peach whispered at last, laying her cold cheek against Salvia's. She kissed the wind-frozen skin. "Let's go home…"

Salvia stared at her, realising what she was promising. "You're sure?"

Peach pouted a little, adorably. Salvia couldn't resist nipping at her lips. "Ooh… Um, as I was saying… Don't punish me for being slow to pick up on things.  And, yes, I'm sure. Tonight and forever.  I love you. And I'm safe with you."

"Forever and more safe." Salvia crushed her close. "Sweet darling girl." She couldn't think of any more words to match the gratitude and love and pure happiness she felt.

"Of course, if you don't _want me to give myself to you-" Peach added brightly._

"Let's go home," Salvia said hastily, her wings spreading. They dove through the night together, Salvia's heart rushing ahead of them through the night.

Far below, the last straggling group of carollers heard, high above, the love-filled laughter of angels.

_Merry Christmas, with love from Kanna-Ophelia.__ Christmas Eve,  2001._


End file.
